Frequently AskedQuestions

Norwest is one of Australia’s largest and most successful business parks, home to 30,000 workers across 800 businesses and 6,000 residents. The 377 hectare world-class master planned estate is located at Baulkham Hills in the North West sector of Sydney and is the size of Sydney’s CBD, with 180 hectares of business land, 151 of residential land, and 46 hectares of waterways, walking trails and parks, including the historic Bella Vista Farm Park.

Mulpha Norwest, a fully owned subsidiary of Mulpha, commenced development of Norwest Business Park (NBP) in 1993 delivering on the vision to create Australia’s largest master-planned, integrated community encompassing commercial, residential, retail and recreational development.

Despite 25 years of development at Norwest, Mulpha still directly controls approximately 40% of the potential future growth in Norwest. Mulpha has designed substantial, community focused masterplans on all of its remaining land and plans to see their implementation through straight land sales to like-minded developers, JV developments, delivering turnkey solutions and straight development themselves. Mulpha’s three major development sites are Norwest City (Marketown), Circa Commercial Precinct and The Greens Residential Development.

To deliver a proven model of a successful future community. A Smart City delivering new age jobs, new age workers and new age residents, in an environment that truly delivers on liveability and productivity through meeting head-on the challenges of modern urbanisation and society.

Population growth, infrastructure development and increased investment in Greater Sydney are shifting the city’s axis westwards. As a prime satellite location between Sydney CBD, Parramatta, Hornsby, the growth precincts of the west and the future second international airport, Norwest is a key element of state and local government’s long-term growth plans, and a major beneficiary of Sydney’s biggest infrastructure investments.

These include the $8b Norwest rail project; a further $3.6b of infrastructure upgrades to western Sydney’s roads; and $20b for the new Western Sydney Airport. Subsequently, the Norwest of tomorrow will be serviced by the conveniently located metro stations of Norwest and Bella Vista, as well as major motorways.

Mulpha’s vision for Norwest is transformational. A physically, digitally and emotionally connected 377Ha masterplanned development that will accelerate cultural change and redefine the model of a future society.

The vision is to drive the 4th evolution of Norwest into a thriving community that seamlessly integrates spaces to live and work. It will encompass over 1 million sqm of retail and commercial real estate, as well as over 5,000 homes. Mulpha envisions the community will become the home of some 2000+ businesses, 60,000+ workers and 20,000+ residents.

Mulpha’s version of a Smart City is one that understands itself. A city of data collection and new age education to enable analysis, interpretation and understanding. A smart city for Mulpha isn’t all the whiz bang technology elements. They’re the tools to provide the smart understanding of how we behave as consumers, how we behave as a community, especially when we are facing the increased challenges of high density urbanisation. A true smart city is therefore one that harnesses a full understanding of itself and uses this to evolve the community and to ensure its continued growth in liveability and productivity.

A 30 minute city is one where, no matter where you live, you can easily access the places you need to visit on a daily basis. The idea is to plan for cities where residents can access employment, schools, shopping, services and recreational facilities within 30 minutes of home.

Mulpha will use its $3+billion investment pipeline to foster Norwest’s development into one of Sydney’s most vibrant communities using innovative design, technology and collaboration. Norwest is a major beneficiary of Sydney’s biggest infrastructure investments and Government’s continued focus. Infrastructure committed and currently under implementation includes the $8b Sydney Metro North West rail project, a further $3.6b of infrastructure upgrades to western Sydney roads and the $20b new Western Sydney Airport.

The physical transformation of Norwest will integrate multiple transport and road network upgrade initiatives (see Traffic Congestion Question below), the redevelopment of Norwest City (Marketown); the development of The Greens Residential Development; the redevelopment of Circa Commercial Precinct – a commercial, retail, health and retirement precinct; the revitalisation of Norwest’s network of over 50km of walkways and cycleways, 46ha of parks and a concept to drive daily activation of Bella Vista Farm Park.

Mulpha has lodged three Planning Proposals with The Hills Shire Council:

Norwest City (Marketown) –the redevelopment of the existing Marketown retail centre with the potential to provide 20,000+sqm of public open space, 110,000sqm of retail and employment space and 1,000 residential apartments situated immediately adjacent to the new Norwest Metro station.

The Greens Residential Development – 864 apartments over nine tower buildings, allowing 70% of the ground plane (being 22,000sqm) to be converted into an expansive landscape setting.

Circa Commercial Precinct – Commercial, Retail, Health and Retirement – with potential to deliver more than 400,000m2 of flexible floor space, this Multi- Generational Campus precinct is built around a rejuvenated innovation campus masterplan for a true workplace town centre of the future with over 25,000sqm of public space including a direct link to the Bella Vista Farm (The Farm). It will be home to over 25,000 additional jobs, with more than a 1,000 residents in serviced apartments and retirement dwellings.

Mulpha will also invest in substantial new infrastructure including road improvements and upgrades, community facilities and services to ensure the needs of residents and workers in Norwest are met.

All these proposals are at various stages in the Gateway Approval process. Circa Commercial Development and The Greens Residential Development have received Gateway Approval and are subject to further requests for information from Council. The Planning Proposal for Norwest City (Marketown) is under discussion with Council and other Planning Agencies.

Mulpha has already commenced on the transformation of Norwest with the introduction of the first apartment building in 2015 and we see the full development continue to be rolled out over the next 10+years. It is the intention of Mulpha to implement start up versions of Smart City Initiatives such as the Innovation Incubation Club (IIC) and the Fully Integrated Transport Management Application (as well as others) in line with the delivery of the Norwest Metro in early 2019. We believe by the time the Metro is delivered, the transformation of Norwest will be well underway.

The fourth industrial revolution can simply be explained as the point in time when Information Technology (i.e. data collection) was critically linked with Operational Technology. This connection and the technological advancements in many industries enables artificial intelligence to monitor operations and make real time adjustments.

These technical advancements are what some economists believe will drive more than 20% of existing service industry jobs towards automation. Therefore it is no longer just the manufacturing industries that need to consider the impact of extensive automation on job numbers.

Mulpha has been working on this vision for more than two years and has made tremendous progress on new age collaborations and partnering. Mulpha is therefore already working creatively with a broad team of outstanding Australian and international experts in health and education, architecture, planning and engineering to re-envision how people will live, work and play in the future.

Mulpha is delivering a model of a future city, there is absolutely no reason people wouldn’t come on board.

Mulpha is an award-winning property developer with 25+ years of experience across all property sectors from commercial, industrial, retail and residential in all forms being land, homes, townhouses and apartments.

Mulpha has retained a single-minded focus to create attractive, liveable communities in the Sydney region with a focus on the iconic award winning Norwest Business Park. Its developments are extraordinary places that are intuitively planned to enrich the lifestyles of residents, business leaders and workers alike.

With over $AU2B worth of projects currently underway and more than double that in the pipeline, Mulpha is set to lead, redefine and evolve how Australians live, work and play.

Mulpha believes the full potential of Norwest could see the jobs opportunity grow from 30,000 to over 60,000+. According to the Hills Economic Report, the surrounding region boasts one of Australia’s most affluent and skilled workforces, with low unemployment rates and a high proportion on young/middle aged workers (25-44yrs). Building from this strong base, Mulpha envisions a new age, diversified and evolving workforce.

Traffic congestion is a major issue affecting every part of the world as urbanisation continues. Whilst we are quickly trying to play catchup, Australia particularly, is behind on the re-pivoting of the conversation to be about holistic multi-modal transport management rather than centering on a dominating single mode or two. The challenge for us and thus what will be the key to our success is the management of the transition from an extremely car dominant society to a sustainable one that relies on a diversified transport system.

But we all know we aren’t yet ready to leave the car behind, because of the absence of:

acceptable alternatives and

the absolute personal convenience and perceived personal benefit of an individual’s car

These two things therefore highlight the underlying elements that need attention and action…… provision of alternate transport options, as well as mechanisms in which to drive changes in consumer behaviour.

Having said the above, multi-modal means we still care about roads and cars – they are going to be extremely important for a while yet – through the transition to diversity and most likely even beyond.

With all this in mind, Mulpha is taking action TODAY on four fronts – thinking holistically, delivering alternatives, consumer behaviour management and road infrastructure.

Mulpha’s actions include:

Thinking holistically (Using Systems Thinking) – Mulpha is currently collaborating with Council, Transport for NSW, RMS and Sydney Metro as well as existing private stakeholders within Norwest (the users) to ensure a comprehensive approach to transport demand and supply is developed to reduce traffic congestion.

Subsequent to and extending the above, Mulpha is committed to participating in a regional traffic modelling analysis that will provide specific base case information and benchmarking.

Mulpha is currently constructing a new link road from Solent Circuit to Spurway Drive.

Mulpha is about to commence the installation of traffic signals at the intersection of Norwest Blvd and Solent Circuit East.

Mulpha has also volunteered further contributions for other Norwest Blvd intersection upgrades.

Mulpha has constructed a 130 space satellite car park opposite Norwest Private Hospital and is in planning to construct another 500 plus space car park on the fringe of Norwest that can be used to avoid the need to drive right into the heart of Norwest.

Mulpha is currently creating a “first and last mile” transport strategy for Norwest users of the Metro, satellite parking stations and other shared transport modes. Last mile travel options include a driverless shuttle service, shared bikes and more.

Mulpha is currently working with their Smart City Engineers to deliver a Fully Integrated Transport Management App, that will utilise:

Live data tools to monitor in real time, the efficiency of all transport modes under use, and

Digital dashboards to empower consumer’s decisions, as well as to be the communication mechanism through which to actively influence those decisions.

Having Norwest centric live data and the ability to influence consumer behaviour in real time, will ensure a strategic approach to and controlled implementation of the transition.

Looking at surrounding areas to Norwest, the first section of the Showground Road upgrade between Carrington Raod and Kentwell Avenue, Castle Hill has been completed. After 2 years of construction, the section has been upgraded from a two lane to a four lane divided road to reduce congestion and increase traffic capacity to meet predicted growth from development in the area. An estimated project cost of $41 million.

Mulpha Norwest played an integral role in protecting the integrity of the Farm by transferring land to the Sydney Water (free of charge) to locate the current water tanks on Westwood Way, Bella Vista. Mulpha Norwest subsequently sold the balance of The Farm to The Hills Shire Council for $1, with the sole intent of enshrining The Farm into public ownership by getting it into public hands.

Mulpha has always held the belief, that Bella Vista Farm Park, with its farm and natural heritage and historic place in the early development of Australian agriculture, must at all costs be protected and preserved.

The work done on a conceptual masterplan for The Farm is one that highlights the Park’s natural attributes and historic place, while fostering active recreation and enriching experiences for a socially engaged and connected community.

The conceptual plan is meant as a conservation starter and a potential blueprint as to how The Farm’s future could be achieved in an economically, historically and environmentally sustainable way. The plan’s intentions are to preserve the farm’s heritage and respect the existing environment while bringing the park to life through a range of amenities and activities to engage and inspire people of all ages and interests.

The intention of the plan is simply a conversation starter to assist Council in determining a sustainable strategy for their asset. The masterplan to revitalise Bella Vista Farm Park has been developed for Mulpha by Plus Architecture and Site Image Landscape Architects and is meant as a conceptual vision to stimulate Community and Council conversation in the hope of ensuring a sustainable future for this incredible piece of public infrastructure.